Government Funding For West Mercia Police 2011-2015

The Government's announcement on the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) settlement on Monday 13 December 2010 helped to clarify the force's funding for the next four years.  The CSR settlement comes into affect from April 2011 onwards. 

In broad terms West Mercia Police will need to save in the region of £30 million over this period.  In the first two years, West Mercia must save £17.4 million.  There remains some uncertainty around the following two years (up to March 2015) but the need to make savings may ease a little.

The CSR savings are in addition to the £9.8 million savings the force has already identified and is beginning to deliver through the loss of 95 police officer roles and 192 police staff roles over the next three years. West Mercia is also introducing many new ways of working to make our policing services more efficient and effective.

Achieving the CSR savings required represents a considerable challenge.  The force will do all that it can to protect frontline service delivery and the services most valued by our communities.  Unfortunately, the situation West Mercia finds itself in means that we will have to make some difficult choices, which will include a further reduction in the number of officers and staff employed. 

Where possible we will continue to manage this reduction through natural staff turnover and maintaining a freeze on external recruitment.  This, along with careful management of our resources has, and will continue to generate significant savings.  Unfortunately, these actions alone will not be enough.  Redundancy will be a last resort but it is an option that we may have to consider in some areas.